This invention relates to a combination lock particularly for products such as cases, bags and the like, comprising an engagement member intended for fixing to one of the two parts of the product, and a combination mechanism fixed to the other part of the container and provided with a latch or pawl arranged to cooperate with said engagement member. The combination mechanism is of the type comprising a series of rotatable discs for setting the combination, an equal series of stop bodies removably engaged with said discs so as to be able to be rotated together therewith, and an element associated with said bodies and slidable against a spring when said bodies assume a predetermined position corresponding to the required combination.
This category of devices substantially includes, for example, those described in Italian patent application No. 22488B/79 of Sept. 7, 1979, in the corresponding U.S. patent Application Ser. No. 175,903 of Aug. 6, 1980, in German patent application No. 2946091 of Nov. 15, 1976 and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,082. These devices comprise in particular annular discs, peripherally provided with alphanumerical signs, and traversed by the stop bodies which are in the form of a sleeve, along which the slidable element extends. Essentially, the said main components are disposed concentrically to each other, with the result that said known devices have a height which precludes or limits certain applications, especially where flat locks, i.e. of low height, are advantageous or necessary. Suitably flat locks able to satisfy market requirements are in fact available commercially, but they are particularly complicated and difficult to mount. In particular, such locks comprise a series of setting discs which are coplanar rather than lying in parallel planes.